When you have completed this training, your knowledge of the terminology and physical principles that form the basis of the technology will be complete, at least the equal of what you might achieve in a more formal (and expensive) learning environment. You will be ready to go on to further, more narrowly-focused training in whatever related specialty you choose, or prepared to sieze opportunities that come your way in the future.

Requirements

Electronics is a somewhat math-intensive technology, so a positive (fearless) attitude about math will be helpful.

Description

Electronics has become important to many fields; communications, automotive, security, defense and consumer electronics, to name just a few. This course will familiarize you with the theory behind various types of electrical and electronic circuitry. It concentrates on practical aspects of the technology, rather than delving into depths of theory that will be of little value in real-world working situations.

The teaching style is conversational one-on-one, the course consisting exclusively of short video presentations. PowerPoint, screen captures, text files, and the like are not used. A PDF version of each session is provided, which you may download and combine as your own searchable resource for future reference.

If you are a person who likes to know how things work, and enjoys the challenge of figuring out why not when they don't, the study of electrical engineering technology is sure to offer knowledge and skills that will interest you, and opportunities in the workplace that you will find personally rewarding, and financially attractive.

This course can help you qualify for careers in a variety of entry-level positions, such as electronics technician, service technician, telecommunications technician and engineering technician.

Technology-focused companies and organizations hire employees who understand analog and digital electronics. Your understanding will be complete; comparable to what you might achieve in a more formal learning environment. You will be prepared to seize opportunities that come your way in the future, and ready to go on to further, more narrowly-focused training in whatever related specialty you choose.

Who this course is for:

If your goal is to move up into one of these better-paying jobs, you can get that basic training here, learning it all at your own pace, and in a stress-free conversational environment.

There’s a lot to it, and it’s going to take some time. So, let’s talk about what your personal goals are, and why you might be willing to put in the time and effort that it’s going to take to complete the course.

I’ll tell you what it’s all about, what’s covered, how the information is presented, what you should know before beginning, how long it might take for you to complete the course, and what you need to bring to it.

It’s about that little poke you sometimes get after shuffling across a carpet in your hard-soled shoes … or those dramatic shafts of white-hot energy that nature sometimes displays to thunderous applause.

We’ll see what causes it, and how we’ve learned to make it happen at will, and in controlled ways that help us get the day’s work done.

Charge

08:59

What’s magnetism got to do with electronics!?!

That’s a fair question, because electromagnetism is all over the place, working quietly for us in the background, and with little or no appreciation.

It’s safe to assume that if it’s “electronic”, it’s employing magnetism to some extent to enable it to do whatever it’s doing for us. So, as a budding electronics expert, magnetism is definitely a phenomenon that you’ll want to know something about.

Magnetism

09:47

Electronics is a branch of physics which, in turn, deals with the relationships between matter and energy mathematically.

So, yes. We’ll be “doing the math” now and then. But it won’t be anything more complicated than a 7th grader could probably handle.

This is a comprehensive introduction to what you can expect to encounter in this course.

Edison may have invented the electric light bulb, but if it hadn’t been for Tesla and Westinghouse, we might still be burning candles.

What’s up with alternating current anyway?

(Are you reviewing the text version of each lecture after watching each video?)

DC vs. AC

11:52

Alternating energy forms are very commonly encountered in electronics, quite beyond the AC which comes out of a wall receptacle, and certain kinds of electronic components respond much differently to alternating signals than they do to DC.

So, before having a look at those sorts of components, let’s find out about the nature of alternating energy by evaluating the characteristics of simple alternating current.

Alternating Current

07:06

An “inductor” is the simplest of all electronic components, being nothing more than a coil of wire. But that doesn’t mean that it’s lacking in interesting and useful properties.

As you’ll soon find out, it is, among other things, the magical physical phenomenon that enables the electrification of your home and office.

Inductance

08:31

The king of the inductive components is the transformer, and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Here’s how they work, and what they’re typically used for.

Transformers

12:50

Capacitors rival resistors for ubiquity in electronic circuitry. What’s capacitance? What are capacitors. How are they made … what do they do … why are they used?

We’ll talk about all that and more, and we’ll have a little fun creating a simple circuit that solves a real-world problem.

Capacitance

18:06

So many capacitor types to choose from … seventy-six pages of fine-print in the DigiKey catalog, a popular source of electronic components! What the heck is up with that!?!

Not to worry. We’ll boil it down to just a few choices which, for all practical purposes, will quite adequately cover whatever applications you happen to have … and which can be schematically represented by just three simple symbols.

Capacitors are never perfect, and their imperfections and failure modes are well worth knowing about. So, we’ll talk about that briefly also.

Practical Capacitors

17:34

Remember “ELI” and “ICE”?

Unlike the simple resistor, coils and capacitors alternately store energy, and then release it back into the circuit. So how do we know what to expect from a circuit combining coils, capacitors, and resistors?

The answer is, trigonometric vector analysis … a simple tool that will help us figure that out the easy way.

Reactive Circuits: Part 1 - Triangle Measure

12:44

In this part in our study of reactive circuits, we’ll learn how to evaluate circuits consisting of resistance and inductance ... whether connected in series, or in parallel.

Reactive Circuits: Part 2 - RL Circuits

10:42

Having gotten our feet wet in our study of RL reactive circuits, we move on now to the similar evaluation circuits consisting of resistance and capacitance … again, whether connected in series, or in parallel.

Reactive Circuits: Part 3 - RC Circuits

05:45

You guessed it was coming next, didn't you?

In this final part in our study of reactive circuits, we’ll have a look at networks that include resistance, inductance, and capacitance … again, whether connected in series, or in parallel.

Reactive Circuits: Part 4 - RLC Circuits

10:01

Resonance (you’ll probably catch me sometimes saying “residence”) can mean many things. If you look it up in an online dictionary, you’ll be apt to find this: that condition of a circuit with respect to a given frequency or the like in which the net reactance is zero and the current flow a maximum.

After you’re through with this lecture, you’ll realize that is not actually accurate.

Resonance has some particularly useful applications in electronics, and you’re about to discover what they are.

Resonant Circuits: Part 1 - Resonance

05:30

An interesting thing happens when a variable-frequency signal is applied to coil and capacitor that are connected in series. There is, in fact, a frequency where that dictionary definition previously scoffed at is actually valid.

If you think about it hard enough, you should be able to figure out why that is true, before even viewing this part of the lecture.

But continue on anyway, and you’ll learn how to figure out what that special frequency is, how sharply tuned the circuit will be, and what resonance can be used for in electronics.

Resonant Circuits: Part 2 - Series Resonance

11:15

Resonance also occurs when a coil and capacitor are connected in parallel. The behavior of the network, sometimes called a “tank circuit” is essentially just the opposite that of the series resonant configuration.

Tank circuits also have their own unique applications which, you’ll discover, are essential to communications.

Back in the old days, the principle of the thermionic vacuum tube, at the most basic level, involved heating one element inside the tube to red-hot in order to generate free electrons, and applying a highly positive potential to a second element in order to attract those current carriers.

The operation of today's’ solid-state devices is, at the most basic level, a result of a natural phenomenon occurring when two slightly different types of semiconductor material are joined together, the interface being called a P-N Junction. We’ll see how that works in forming the simplest of all solid-state devices; the diode.

We’ll also briefly practice an exercise in perspective: conventional current vs. electron current.

p-n Junctions

14:18

PN Junctions become useful when exploited through the application of external potentials, called bias. We’ll see that that is, and how it affects the junction.

We’ll also learn about some very common diode types, and their applications.

Diodes: Part 1 - Biased PN Junctions

14:01

We’ll briefly review the common Greek prefixes and suffixes, and how they relate to powers of 10.

Then we’ll go further, learning how to calculate using those exponential values, and seeing how that can greatly simplify the arithmetic.

Diodes: Part 2 - Scientific Notation

05:05

From engineering genius to eugenics crackpot … the story, in brief, of the man credited with the invention of binary junction transistor and the birth of Silicon Valley.

We’ll briefly see how that story unfolded, and what happens when two PN junctions are fused together to form a single device called the “transistor”.

Binary Junction Transistors: Part 1 - Transistor Physics

08:25

Discrete BJTs being used primarily for switching these days, we’ll focus on that, and the types of devices that commonly chosen for that application.

Binary Junction Transistors: Part 2 - Simple Applications

08:54

The development of a practical field-effect device originated through an effort to duplicate the functioning of a thermionic vacuum tube triode in solid-state form … that is, to control current flowing between two elements by means of a potential applied to a third. It took some twenty-years, but William Shockley finally figured out how to do that.

Here’s what he came up with, and how it works.

Field Effect Transistors - JFETs: Part 1 - JEFT Physics

07:01

Delving into some of the finer points of circuit design with JFETs, we’ll touch on the concepts of conductance and transconductance, and have a look at some typical JFET characteristics.

Along the way, we’ll see how these devices are used in a couple of practical applications.

Field Effect Transistors - JFETs: Part 2 - JEFT Applications

10:43

The Metal Oxide Semiconductor FET represents a departure from the PN junction paradigm, and has stolen the show from all other semiconductor types in switching applications.

Here’s why.

Field Effect Transistors - MOSFETs: Part 1 - MOSFET Physics

07:32

We’ll revisit our relay-driver circuit, to see how it’ll work with a MOSFET, instead of a BJT.

The CMOS scheme is introduced, and we’ll see how that lends itself ideally to both simple logic circuits, and “large-scale integration” applications, including random-access memory systems.

Field Effect Transistors - MOSFETs: Part 2 - MOSFET Applications

11:53

When “solid-state” is mentioned, one is apt to envision small, low-power devices, in applications like radio, TV, personal computers and cell phones.

In this section, we’ll be thinking about some solid-state devices that are designed especially for AC, and are commonly found in applications involving 120/240vac service power.

Thyristor Devices

12:43

PN Junctions, and certain materials, are naturally light-sensitive. That attribute can be enhanced to produce devices capable of detecting the presence of light, and measuring its intensity.

We’ll have a look at how these devices, work, and some simple applications for the photoresistive and photoconductive devices.

Photoelectric Devices: Part 1 - Photoconductive Devices

16:49

More generally known simply as “photocells”, photovoltaic cells are very useful as a power source for portable equipment, They are also finding widespread use in practical electric power generation, as a so-called “renewable resource.

We’ll now have a look at how these devices work, and how they’re being adapted to those applications.

The development of monolithic integrated circuitry engendered a dramatic paradigm shift in electronic technology. Over just the past sixty or seventy years, the products it has made possible have changed even the culture itself, and altered the path of human history.

It’s astonishing that much of this has resulted from the inventions and innovations of just a handful of very bright individuals … a few engineers and entrepreneurs, who have had far more influence on the development of life as we know it today, than all of their contemporaries in the realms of world leadership.

We’ll very briefly review how that happened.

Monolithic Integrated Circuits

14:38

As we approach the realm of monolithic integrated circuits, it needn’t be with foreboding over something that threatens to be formidably complex. Think of it as entering the midway of a carnival, with all sorts of colorful and fun rides and games to experience!

We’ll begin with the simplest of all such “chips” … those which just deal with zeros and ones … “on” and “off”, in other words, or “high” and “low” input and output states.

They’re called “logic” circuits, because they’re usually used to perform some simple decision-making task.

Basic Logic Devices

15:55

Flip-flop circuits are a workhorse of modern digital electronics. Primarily a logic element, they’re also found in all sorts of other applications. We’ll look at the basic flip-flop, and some more advanced versions designed to overcome some of its deficiencies.

Clocks, in the electronic sense, usually have nothing to do with telling time. We’ll also discover what that means.

Reminder: If the explanations of the digital circuits discussed in these videos seem difficult to follow, consider reviewing the lecture by downloading the PDF version, or reading the printed version.

Flip-Flops and Clocks: Part 1 - Flip-Flops and Clocks

10:52

Multivibrators are circuits that generate square or rectangular waveforms. This sort of circuit was invented way back in the early 20###sup/sup### Century, well before there was any practical use for it.

A modern version of it is essential to the computer that you’re using right now. We’ll have a look at some modern versions, and will see what they’re used for.

Flip-Flops and Clocks: Part 2 - Multivibrators

12:35

Before investigating the wonderful world of complex digital integrated circuits, it’ll be helpful to know something about the number systems such chips use.

It’s called the binary number system.

Binary Number Systems:Part 1 - Basic Binary Numbers

11:42

There are several special versions of the binary number system. The two most frequently encountered are called BCD, and Hexadecimal.

We’ll briefly investigate the nature of these two iterations, and find out what they’re used for.

Binary Number Systems:Part 2 - BCD and Hex Numbers

06:44

Counting is frequently required in digital computers and other digital systems to record the number of events occurring in a specified interval of time.

There are several types of counters in common use, the binary ripple counter being the simplest.

Digital Counters: Part 1 - Ripple Counters

12:29

More versatile than the simple ripple counter, the Binary/BCD, Up/Down counter is especially useful for event programming and alphanumeric display purposes.

The “4029” has been a very popular part for a long time. In this lecture, we’ll see how that works.

Digital Counters: Part 2 - Up/Down Counters

07:25

Operational Amplifiers have been mentioned a few times in the previous lectures, but without going into much detail about what they are, and the many ways that they can be used.

That’s the principal subject of this lecture. If you’ve been worrying about op amps being complex and difficult, you’re in for a nice surprise!

Linear Devices: Part 1 - The Op Amp

15:08

Linear Devices: Part 2 - Math Operators

16:07

One of the lessons that you should take home from any course in electronics fundamentals is that the performance of any sort of circuit will never be any better than its DC power supply.

Fortunately, with today’s monolithic DC voltage regulators, excellence in that area is very easy to achieve. This final part of the lecture will show you how.